Another frightening reminder

Published: Saturday, November 24, 2012 at 4:54 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, November 24, 2012 at 4:54 p.m.

Local people and businesses can count their blessings that Hurricane Isaac passed us by and left few scars.

But the state and federal governments have spent $365 million in 55 Louisiana parishes on disaster assistance since Isaac struck three months ago.

That is a lot of money, but it is nowhere near what it could have been.

Although Isaac remained over the Gulf of Mexico for days, it strengthened only slightly and delivered just a low-end Category 1 hurricane by the time it made landfall over Louisiana.

The storm had a huge impact, of course. Primarily in Plaquemines and St. John parishes, the human toll was daunting.

Homes and businesses flooded.

When the winds ceased and the waters receded, people were left to assess the damage, and the government was there to help the victims as much as it could.

The enormity of the price tag compared to the relatively mild nature of this hurricane, can be an eye-popping number.

It is nothing, though, compared to the tens of billions of dollars that will likely be spent on the East Coast’s recovery from Sandy, which delivered its own blow last month.

And it isn’t even a shadow of what Isaac could have cost if it had developed a bit differently.

For instance, if it had gathered more strength over the Gulf or if it had brought more rain or if it had taken a different path, we could be spending the holidays tabulating our losses rather than counting our blessings.

That is natural. As with any storm, we can offer guesses about what would have happened if this or that had taken place.

The cost, though, is difficult to ignore.

Even this relatively weak storm will cost hundreds of millions of dollars in recovery money. And it could have been so much worse.

One passing storm is not going to deliver the message that our coast and its people desperately need help to gird against future disasters. But the money should make an impression.

We don’t need levees and coastal restoration because they would be nice to have. We need these things to head off the loss of life and property that could come from future storms.

We need these things because we want to continue living and working here, and we cannot do that if we continue to grow increasingly vulnerable.

The argument is one we have made repeatedly but with only limited success.

If the right people one day begin listening, though, it would be so much nicer to watch these incredible sums of money going into preventive measures than being spent on recovery.

That would be a blessing that would pay continuing dividends for generations to come.

Editorials represent the opinions of

the newspaper, not of any individual.

Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.